


The Light of the Universe

by Merfilly



Category: Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Moving On, Mythology References, Past Relationship(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-30
Updated: 2019-03-30
Packaged: 2019-11-06 16:12:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17942972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: In the moments between Rose saying no and the Doctor returning to offer her a chance again, The TARDIS goes somewhere so he can hear words he needs.





	The Light of the Universe

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kay_obsessive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_obsessive/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Who Follow The Gleam](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14028942) by [kay_obsessive](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kay_obsessive/pseuds/kay_obsessive). 



She knew, almost before the dinosaur-wheezing sound emerged, that the TARDIS was coming. Ace had never lost the connection to her, a small thing, much like the key that still hung on its chain around her neck. Her separation from the Doctor, her Professor, had been a necessary thing, but they all three had known one important thing.

Separations were never final, so long as breath remained. Her Doctor had helped her be strong enough, not just to leave, but to go on living while he was out there, doing the things that needed to be done. She had known that the being called 'The Master' had been important to the Doctor, in ways that made him both irritable and sad all in one emotion. That he had not wanted her to aid him in whatever the summons meant, concerning the Master, did not mean that he did not continue to love her.

Someday, he would return, maybe changed, but still the Doctor. Her Professor. Now, it seemed the day had come, as the TARDIS blinked in and out of reality in the alleyway behind her building. She watched, waiting with all her nerves keyed up in anticipation, until the blue box that meant hope in so many cultures solidified, and the door opened.

The man that came out was nothing like her Doctor. The pull of the TARDIS reassured her more than anything else, that this was still the Doctor, despite the leather jacket and cropped hair and big ears… the last irreverent thought made her smile broadly as he took note of her.

He then petulantly glared at the TARDIS, hand resting on the door. "Hey! I said back to the girl with the brass enough to face off the aliens!"

"Surely you haven't forgotten that's my stock in trade?" Ace asked, wondering who the girl was, and wondering if this Doctor was from before hers. That would be odd, and set up… a few interesting variations on how the Professor had always known how to handle her.

He squinted, and then he was smiling broadly and leaving the shelter of the TARDIS to come and embrace her.

"Ace!"

She let him wrap around her, pushing into that solid chest, part of her mind filing away the changes in height, weight, and feel of him. "Hello, Professor," she murmured, still tucked in the arms that had given comfort to her so often, yet were so different now. 

"You've grown up some more," he commented softly.

"You mean gotten old," she said, perfectly at ease with the time passing, and yet knowing it had to weigh on him. "Come on inside for a drink and talking. Pretty sure that's why you're here, and not with this other girl you've met. I can feel the TARDIS humming at me."

The Doctor shot a look back at the blue box, one that spoke of betrayal and not a little surprise at the initiative shown by his eternal Companion in travels.

He did not resist the tug to go inside though, especially not when Ace had placed a kiss on his cheek before slipping mostly free of his arms.

"I don't usually run into former Companions once my face changes," the Doctor said, a half-hearted excuse to hold back some. She tightened her fingers in his sleeve. 

"Because you're scared of seeing them further along in their lives. And not wanting to bring harm to them, for seeing you from that point," Ace said. "With me, it's a bit different, don't you think?"

She watched the thought play over his expressive face, the awareness of who she was, who she had been, who she ever would be come back to him.

There was still a hesitation, before he dropped on her sofa, and she tucked in along his side, feet up under her despite the crankiness of her knees and ankles.

"You have no idea what I've done, Ace," he said softly, and in the back of her mind, she could feel the TARDIS's wounded mourning song, both for him and for their people.

"Doesn't matter, Professor," she said softly, resting her head on his shoulder, forcing him to adopt the posture of holding her, of being stronger than she knew he felt. "You taught me, long ago, that necessary choices have to be made by those who can, so those who cannot do not suffer needlessly."

He looked at her, and there was something so lost in his expression for a long moment. Then he tightened his arm around her and took in a long, deep breath. "How did you get so wise, Ace?" he asked before reaching across with his other hand to tweak her nose with his forefinger.

That was so much a thing from her Doctor that her eyes misted up for a long moment. She managed a smile, though. "Something about spending so long at the side of a man that patiently let me find it?" she asked him.

The Doctor smiled and leaned his forehead in against hers, accepting that as truth.

"Can I truly do that again, Ace? Can I be selfish and take someone along with me for a scenic trip around a galaxy in which I have no place any longer?"

"Hmph." Ace's disparaging noise made him pull back some. She let her old fire and spark show at his words, not liking them much more than she liked the raw, scraped feeling of him, and the deep pain of the TARDIS pulsing outside in the alleyway.

"I don't," he protested.

"Yes, you do. For all that you have disavowed the place you came from, you have made your own place for… centuries, at least. No, don't tell me how old you are; that didn't go over so well when I was in my twenties; not sure it would work even now, despite having no idea how old I am."

He did chuckle at that, but he waited, wanting — no, she saw it as need — to hear her thoughts.

"Professor, you go where you are needed, even if not wanted, and you become a part of the myth of the people wherever you land, fixing the things that have gone wrong. While I don't know where you are coming from now, or how many faces you have had since you were mine, I do know this:

"You are, without doubt, a fixture of the universe, set in place to guide those seeking to be better. So let yourself live, even as I have, and find where you are meant to go, little by little."

He listened, and she saw it coming to light within his hearts, words he ached to live up to again, even as he struggled under the crippling weight of whatever had broken some of his spirit. He reminded her of herself, that long gone day when he had broken her faith in him. Hers had healed; would his?

"Even if it is with a new girl who yells at me and hits the bad guys hard?" he asked her, a smirk at his lips now.

She leaned in, kissing those lips very gently. "Especially then. Feel free to bring her by for my recipes," she invited, before he closed his arms around her and held on.

Maybe, just maybe, she had given back to him what her Doctor had given to her with those words.

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, this is in fact inspired, to a degree, by "Who Follow the Gleam" and with permission, once the reveals happen, I would like to link it as an inspiration. (ETA, linked!)


End file.
